Teresa Miller didn't waste much time after the U.S. Olympic hockey team was announced before sitting down at the sewing machine and getting to work. Over the years, that had been her escape, her gift and her reward. The coats, pillows and other masterpieces have become a scrapbook of sorts, a celebration of her family's life in sports.

A few years ago, she made a coat that was half-Sabres and half-Ducks to commemorate the first time sons Ryan and Drew played against one another in the NHL, splitting her allegiance between her boys yet making sure they ultimately were joined together to keep a mother warm in body and soul.

She's been working on another jacket over the past several weeks to remember the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Ryan Miller, of course, will be the No. 1 goaltender for the U.S. team in its quest for its first gold medal since 1980. In truth, it could need another Miracle on Ice and a similar performance from its goaltender to win it all.

Details about the coat are classified because it's a surprise, but weeks of in-depth reporting have uncovered the color scheme: red, white and blue. Just a hunch, might it also include a few stars, stripes or the letters U-S-A?

"I'm notorious for goofy stuff," Teresa Miller said with a laugh. "I just like to make them laugh. I bought the red and blue and just had it sitting here. I didn't do anything until the announcement. Right after that, I cut it all out."

The coat and the people behind Miller explain a few things about him as he prepares to carry the flag for the United States on the world's stage. He will be among the prominent faces of this Olympic team, which many view as a long shot for gold. The Americans' success, as it usually does in hockey, will be largely determined by their goaltender.

Picking him for this team was an easy decision. For all the success he's enjoyed over the years in hockey, and the expectation that he would be named, his parents were still moved to tears when the U.S. team was announced on New Year's Day.

An American tale In many ways, it's an American dream that comes with many layers and fabrics, woven carefully and methodically into the man you see today. Miller's maternal grandfather was Native American and Irish, making his connection to this country as deep as its history. His father's family comes from Canada, hockey all the way.

"He's the absolute right kind of individual that would represent your country," his mother said. "He's there for all the right reasons. He's a great young man. He's not just an athlete. He's what represents a true Olympic athlete, just an all-around good, solid person."

Miller is all of the above, but above all an American. He's still bothered by Canada slipping that loonie into center ice in Salt Lake City before beating the Americans on their home turf. He would like nothing more than to return the favor Feb. 27, when the gold medal game will be played in GM Place in Vancouver.

He will arrive with both a cool mask and a cool head. The mask will be obvious. It's decorated with Uncle Sam on one side and a bald eagle on the other. The five rings celebrating the Olympics have been painted across the chin. Small shamrocks, a shout out to 1980 U.S. goalie Jim Craig, have been subtly placed on each side.

The calm inside of his head has been a work in progress, a project that took years of play with the Buffalo Sabres. Now, he gets an opportunity to represent his NHL team, his hometown, his adopted city, his country. The significance of that, if not the weight, has certainly hit home.

Yeah, he gets it.

"There are all kinds of different ties to the American story here," Miller said. "I respect it and what it means. It's not corny. It's a great opportunity, something a very select group of people get to do and have done.

"The long and short of it is that it's cool. It's a great tournament. The eyes of the nation are on you at the time, and it will be a premier attraction during the Games. Hockey is a big ticket. It's going to be in Canada, where the game is celebrated like no other country."

If his athleticism, his hockey, was embedded in DNA from the long list of Millers who passed through Michigan State and made theirs a household name for generations in East Lansing, his creative qualities and self-expression come from his friendly, outgoing mother.

Goaltending can be perceived as an art form when you ignore the chaos and focus solely on movement. Watch goalies slide from side to side, drop into butterfly position, their quick glove, their blocker, their bodies reacting to what their eyes are telling them. It becomes a dance, a solo routine to be sure.

Combine everything, and you get a terrific goaltender. Miller doesn't reach this level without having the physical tools, but he also doesn't become an elite goalie unless the mind follows. When they're in unison, as they have been this season, it's an athlete at his finest. And that's where Miller stands today.

"I love watching Ryan Miller," said former goalie and current Blues analyst Darren Pang, who will cover the Olympics for TSN. "I've always been enamored by him. Now, I'm seeing a goaltender who is as complete as any goaltender in the NHL. I'm sure he thinks he's going to get better, which is the goal, but this final product is what you envision a guy is going to end up being.

"You don't want to say it's like a ballet dancer, but it's like watching a perfect 10 in a figure-skating routine or a gymnast. That's the way it looks, anyway. With his movement and his edges and his legs moving side to side, the thing that really impresses me is that there are no holes. It's been perfect positioning."

People neither roll out of bed clumsily one day and wake up in a Broadway show nor strap on a mask and become a goalie. It takes years for goaltenders to master the technical side from the neck down, and there are no guarantees for greatness unless it comes together from the neck up.

The mental side for years was Miller's biggest drawback but this season it has been his greatest asset. His maturation in body and mind has been a process complete with twists and turns, bumps and dips.

He's always been deeply introspective, a quality that was sure to reward him if it didn't ruin him first.

Emotion harnessed

Now, at age 29, he has steered his career across bumpy terrain and through a tunnel before finding smooth passage and sunshine on the other side. Miller has become what the Sabres saw all along, one of the NHL's best goalies, by harnessing his emotions. The difference in his demeanor, and his play, is palpable.

"Oh, yeah, even from last year to this year," Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier said. "I give him a lot of credit because a lot of the stuff he has worked on is off-ice. It's about your own personality, your own disposition and your own character. It takes a lot of work to develop those mental skills. All the [physical tools] were in place."

Heading into the weekend, Miller has a 29-14-7 record, a 2.19 goals-against average, a .930 save percentage and five shutouts with the Sabres. Buffalo had played sound, disciplined defense around him, but nobody can take more credit than him for the months in which the Sabres held the lead in the Northeast Division.

The bad goals that once left people shaking their heads and doubting his greatness only recently crept back into his game. That's in part to a subtle adjustment in his stance in which his arms are closer to his body than in past years. But he's also making better, quicker reads in which he's already in position before the puck leaves the shooter's stick.

"He's playing hockey," Sabres goaltending coach Jim Corsi said. "There's a distinction. He's dressed like a goalie, but he's playing like a player."

Complete player

Miller likes to break down his duties as stopping pucks, which sounds about right given his job description, but to generalize him solely as a goaltender would be grossly misleading and unfair. He has become what the Sabres' coaches have wanted for years. He's not a goaltender but a complete player.

And therein rests the irony.

Years ago, back when he was 8 and living in Santa Clara, Calif., his father insisted that his son be a player when all Miller wanted was to become a goaltender. Dean Miller didn't want him to play goalie because he worried that the scrutiny and stress that come with the position was too much.

"It's not for the faint of heart," his father said. "It's pressure-packed all the time. If you made the save, you're supposed to. If you didn't, you were a bum. It's a lot of pressure to put on anybody at any level at any age. You've seen him come through the gantlet."

As the story goes, Miller was playing forward for a bad team that was losing a game when Miller refused to play another shift unless he was in net. His father, exasperated by his son's stubbornness, promised to give him a turn in goal the next game if Miller scored twice in the third period. Miller had a hat trick, led his team to victory, took over the crease the next game and never turned back.

Twenty-one years later, he has evolved into one of the best goalies in the world and the single-biggest reason the Americans have a chance at winning gold in Vancouver. Conversely, the Yanks are certain to tumble if he falls on his face. Their first game is Tuesday Feb. 16 against Switzerland in the preliminary round.

"We're always kind of pinching ourselves to see if it's a dream or not, but it's not a surprise to be honest with you," his father said. "He had a plan early in life, and he's been marching to that plan. He's been progressing. I've always told him, 'always forward, never straight' and he's always moving forward."

It will not be his first brush with the Winter Games. He was 7 years old in February 1988 when his family traveled to Calgary to watch his cousin, Kevin Miller, play for the Americans and to meet with relatives from his father's side who lived in Regina, Sask. He has other cousins who live in Vancouver and will be going to the Games.

"I remember watching and being told how important it was, how big the games were," Ryan Miller said. "I remember trading pins. I always thought those guys were awesome. Going on vacation, meeting the family, it was pretty wild. I was surrounded by a lot of family that I never met before, the hockey, the Olympic experience. It was a nice trip."

Dean Miller was a good player himself, just like his father and brothers. He played for the late, great U.S. coach Herb Brooks the summer before the 1980 Olympics. His mother also was a good athlete. Miller's maternal grandfather, the late Jack Leece, was an all-state basketball player in Michigan and scratch golfer. Miller's mother was pregnant with Ryan when the Americans beat the Russians on their way to the gold medal.

"We watched it, we were thrilled, we all had tears in our eyes," Teresa Miller said. "You think about Jim Craig and watching him looking for his dad. Honestly, I can see Ryan being the same way, looking for his dad. Let's hope so."

All told, the Millers sent 10 players through Michigan State. He and cousin Kip Miller won the Hobey Baker Award, given to the best U.S. college player, 11 years apart. They remain the only two from the same family to earn the honor. The family's history can be found splashed across the walls in Munn Ice Arena on the MSU campus.

Spartan first

Miller fantasized about the Olympics as a boy, but it seemed far-fetched. His goal was playing for Michigan State like his cousins. His cousin, Kevin, remembered Ryan working out with college and professional players at Michigan State when he was 14 or 15 years old and them struggling to beat him.

"We were always looking for goalies," Kevin Miller said. "He would come out and stand in there, hang in there, and it didn't matter how hard these college guys and pro guys were shooting. It was tough beating him. That's about when I knew that he was going to be pretty good someday."

By the time he left college for the pros in 2002, he was among the most celebrated players in school history. In 2005, when he returned home with a broken thumb that many believe cost him a spot on the U.S. team in Turin, Italy, he was given a spontaneous standing ovation for merely walking into a Michigan State home game.

"For him, that's a natural progression," Dean Miller said. "He was going to play for Michigan State. He was going to play in the NHL. One of his goals was to play in the Olympics. He sets his mind to do something, and he's very stubborn — as you know."

Yeah, we know. His stubbornness comes through in his eyes and can be found in his game. That's what helped make him so good in the first place.

Struggle with failure

Miller had his moments balancing success and failure early in his career. Simply, he had so much success that he didn't understand failure when he reached the greatest hockey travel league in the world. He left Michigan State with a 73-19-12 record but won just six of his first 18 NHL games.

At times, his frustration surfaced through in mini-tantrums or prickly behavior that came across as unprofessional and immature, leading to minor disputes with the media. Every year, he came back better and more polished than he was the previous year.

He's no longer just the franchise player or the NHL's best goalie. For the next two weeks, he'll be the nation's goaltender.

"It's been an evolution," Miller said. "Everything comes down to performance. I have found a good place to put myself where I can perform at what I feel is an elite level every night. I got to this space. I need to keep it."